Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Beyond frustration

Much to my continued and everlasting frustration, the search for the camera software continues. I've got pictures of the Kitty Pi going to the O.C. for vacation. (Ocean City, Maryland, not the county on the west coast.) I've got pictures of the Wedding Ring Shawl. I've got pictures of some lovely Italian merino laceweight that is begging to be knit up. (Hush, wool! I've got too many projects on the needle as is!)

I’ve been through every place where disks of any type are stored to no avail. The silver lining is that this whole episode has sparked an odyssey of purging and organizing. Observations:

- It’s disgusting how much paper it takes to live life. I pulled out every file, every stack of paper, the expanding folder I use for grab-in-an-emergency-can’t-live-without paperwork, and every box that had even this slightest hint of paper in it. With the nifty list of record retention guidelines in hand, I ruthlessly weeded out the extraneous paper and ended up with a large Bed, Bath & Beyond bag full of shredded papers. (Arthur Andersen would be proud.) I then reorganized the emergency folder which is no longer bulging at the seams and sorted the remaining items into a nice and compact wicker crate from the above-mentioned BB&B.

- Last year I came to the realization that I am a blessed person. I have an abundance of possession. Back in October, I had an overabundance and began paring down my possessions. (The stash remains intact and unpurged!) It was an eye-opening epiphany…and I’ve concluded that I still have an overabundance at home. Not as bad as before, but the paring needs to continue.

Adding insult to injury, I discovered a terrible mistake while working on the Wedding Ring Shawl last night: I had dropped a stitch on the previous row and a small left-pointing triangle had completely unraveled. It wasn’t a simple dropped stitch where one can simply pull up the stitch through the ladders. This area was full of increases and decreases. I’ve posted a message on Sharon Miller’s discussion group soliciting opinions on how best to fix it: try and graft a repair later on or rip the darn thing out the beginning. (Downside to working with gossamer silk: it’s so slippery that it unraveled until it was forcibly stopped by yarnovers; wool would have stuck together and prevented some of the unraveling.) So, as of right now, I stand at 9.2% complete with the center section after almost six weeks of work. I'm leaning heavily towards the grafting solution right now, so hopefully tonight the tally won't be reduced to 0% finished.